


not quite a shovel talk

by Dubiousculturalartifact (222Ravens)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Danvers Sibling Feels, F/F, Fluff, identity reveals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 19:59:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9253925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/222Ravens/pseuds/Dubiousculturalartifact
Summary: "Your sister is important to you, isn't she?" Maggie says, because that's it, isn't it.





	

"Are you sure?”, comes Alex's voice from the other room.

  


"Yes, Alex.” Is the reply, and  _wow_ , is Kara bad at whispering. “I want to. Maggie is…”

  


Not that Maggie is eavesdropping. That would be. Unethical, and bad. And.... Okay. Just a little bit. But can you blame her? She's curious, and the conversation is clearly about her, from the tone of it.   


It's not the first time she's seen Alex's sister since they became a thing, but it's relatively close, given that whole week when Kara had been off on some reporting venture. This isn't just a quick chat, this is full on formal brunch at Kara's apartment. 

 

She's pretty sure it's some kind of test.  


So she's definitely not nervous when Alex nods, and then, overly loudly, Kara says, “I can’t believe it Alex! Y _ou forgot the sticky buns,”_ while giving a conspiratorial look at Alex, and flapping her hands. “Go, go!”

 

“Oh?” Alex says, spinning around to Maggie, and giving her an apologetic shrug, with “I’ll be back in ten minutes, okay?”  


She’s not nervous, so she just gives a thumbs-up from her position on Kara’s nice couch. Except, maybe some of the nervousness shows, because Alex does this cute little quirk of an eyebrow, and detours from her path to the door to snag a kiss before leaving. Despite the lingering weird feeling, Maggie is only happy to oblige. 

 

It's the kind of kiss that's sweet, simple, and manages to actually calm the butterflies in her stomach. That's not something she's used to, just yet. How easy it feels, being with Alex. How  _right_ , already, in the way so few of her past relationships have been. 

  


The door closes behind Alex, as Maggie turns away, blinking softly. Now, she's facing Kara, who is looking at her, oddly. "Can I help with anything?”  


  


Kara hesitates, before setting her jaw, some kind of decision apparently made. "Help me set the table? Alex should be back soon, I was just... Worried there isn't going to be enough food otherwise. "

  


Maggie looks skeptically at the spread of bacon, sausage, pancakes, fruit salad, juice, coffee, and the eggs that Kara just about to start to scrambling. "Are we expecting more people, or?"

  


"No! I just. Um.” Kara looks nervous, like she's trying to figure out what to say, and Maggie takes pity on her.

  
"You know what, sure. Where are the plates?" She says, getting off the couch, and there are a few minutes of relative silence, just Maggie being directed around the kitchen & dining area, pulling out napkins, plates, and putting all the food on the table.

  


Kara is keeping an eye on her, she thinks. Measuring her up, while Maggie tries to do the same, with a bit more subtlety. It’s funny, because Kara looks more familiar than she should, for someone Maggie has actually only interacted with about two or three other times. It's also funny, because she really can't get a read on the girl.

  


She's very sweet, but there's definitely some feistiness there, and underneath the bubbly, it's hard figuring out what she thinks of Maggie. Their first meeting had been awkward, but pretty much everything to do with Alex had felt awkward, then. It's not as bad now, but she can't help but think...

  


"Your sister is important to you, isn't she?" Maggie says, because that's it, isn't it. 

  


Kara looks up,  as if surprised that it was even phrased half-way as a question. “More than anyone else in the entire universe."

 

Maggie nods, slowly.

 

Kara seems to get what she means. "Yes. Alex is, and… Okay. You nearly broke her heart, once. She explained it to me, and on one level, I get it. What you said, how you acted. It makes sense, and I'm not judging you for being hesitant. I know the danger of rushing into a relationship with a friend, and having it fall apart. But this is Alex. This is my _sister_ , so I wanted to be so, so… _Angry_ at you. I really did. I wanted to hate you."

  


Damn. Maggie purses her lips, understandingly, as she sits back down on the couch, slowly. "I get it. And I don’t blame you.”

 

She’d hurt Alex, in the beginning. She knows she had. They’d both wound up hurting, because it had been messy, and uncertain, and she hates that.

 

She regrets how she’d acted. 

 

But at the same time, she isn’t sure she would have done differently. True, she had been really, really insecure, and scared about screwing it up, and by that, almost _had_ screwed up. But how things had unfolded, had given Alex a bit of breathing room to figure things out for _herself_ , and given Maggie enough time to come to terms with the idea that she _deserved_ someone like Alex.

 

Whatever else, she doesn’t regret that. Not entirely. But if Kara only sees the hurt that Alex had shown, in the beginning, she can’t possibly blame Kara for that, either. She’s never had siblings, but she can tell that, foster sister or not, Alex and Kara are the real deal, in terms of family meaning _everything_ to a person.

 

She needs to get this right, and she might have screwed it up, already.  


Except Kara is shaking her head, and sitting beside her, on the couch. ” _No_ , I don’t mean it like that. Alex is... She's the most incredible human being I have ever known in my entire life. The most incredible _being_ , period.”

 

The inclusiveness of the phrasing is a nice touch, given what Kara knows about Maggie’s line of work. It’s warming, and so Maggie smiles a little, involuntarily.

 

Kara keeps talking. “I would die for her, any day of the week, and she's one of the things that keeps me living. I would trust her with everything. Except, and I’m not trying to make this about me, I’m not, but suddenly there's this... Entire thing about her, that I didn’t even see, because I didn't know how to. I feel so stupid about that, and angry, and I nearly got angry at you, because that would have been… Easier.”

 

Something in Kara relaxes, a little. “But I never like living like that. So I had to… I made myself look at it differently, or it would be a betrayal of everything I want to be. So I looked at Alex, again. And you know what I see, now? She's happier right now than I've probably ever seen her in my entire life. She's more... Settled. She knows herself better. And lot of that is _all her_. I’m not discounting her in that, because I would never do that. But a lot of that is you. You helped her, in a really profound way, and even if you two didn’t get together, I would still be grateful to you for that.”

 

“Thank you.” Maggie says, quietly, interjecting without interrupting.

 

Kara wrinkles her forehead, and takes a long, slow breath, like she’s steeling herself for something. “She cares about you. And I think you care about her a lot, or you never would have given what's between you two another chance. So I want to thank you for that. So, I want to get to know you, because you matter to Alex. But I can’t do that, without letting you know that there's something you don't know about _me_."

"Yeah?" There’s a stray bendy-straw on the table, and Maggie idly picks it up. 

 

In the corner of her eye, Kara is pulling her hair down, and... Taking off her glasses. _Her glasses?_

 

Maggie looks up, and everything clicks.

 

"I'm Supergirl." Kara says, flatly.

  


"Well, shit." Maggie says, because it covers all the bases.

 

It… 

 

Her first instinct is that, well. It makes an annoying amount of sense, really. Enough that she kind of kicks herself for not having clued in, earlier. Honestly, a pair of glasses, and all of her detective skills had gone out the window?

 

Well. It didn’t help that every time previously she’d talked to Kara, it had been with Alex in the room. Alex Danvers, she was starting to realize, was that kinda magnetic to her. From the very beginning, in fact, long before she’d let herself admit it.

 

Still. _Supergirl_. Huh. That’s.

 

There’s a beat of silence, as they both stare at each other, and Maggie’s brain yells about superheroism, and identity politics, and the profound level of trust she was just shown, and eight billion different other thoughts at once.  


"I want you to understand, I’m telling you this because…” Kara starts, again.

  
“A little-sister shovel talk is more impressive when I know you have laser-eyes?” She jokes, because sometimes her mouth talks before her brain catches up, and nope, this revelation did _not_ entirely belay her nervousness. At all.  
  
“There is that.” Kara says, and just for a moment, there's a flash strength there that she hadn't seen yet in the young woman. The kind that makes her fully aware that _The Girl of Steel_ is more than just a PR descriptor.

 

Except, then she gives a warm, bright smile, and it’s one of the most genuinely reassuring things that Maggie has ever seen. “But no. I’m telling you because I want you to know… If my sister can trust you with her heart, then there is _nothing_ that could make me doubt the calibre of your own.”

 

Oh. Well. There’s that.

 

“I’m telling you, because… You are an incredible women, Maggie Sawyer. My sister is lucky to know you, and have you in her life. That, when I say I’d like to know you, that starts with you knowing me, too. Because Supergirl is me, as much as Kara Danvers is.”

 

Wow. This is. A lot of feelings, for pretty early in the morning. She kinda wishes that she’d had some coffee. 

 

More than that, though, she just feels a really huge surge of warmth, and trust, and happiness, about all of it. It’s still messy, and still uncertain, and real life means nothing is taken for granted… But she wants it, anyway. Wants Alex, and everyone who is important in Alex’s life, to be a part of hers. 

 

“I guess. This is the part where I thank you for trusting me with a big part of yourself.” Maggie says, and means it, really profoundly. 

  
"My sister, or my secret identity?“ Kara says, with a laugh that’s infectious, and some of the tension in the room dissipates, just like that.

  
  
Eventually, the laughter dies down, and Maggie takes a moment to get serious again.

 

“Both. But. I mean. It’s not exactly the same thing, and I don’t want to conflate the two, exactly… But if you want to talk about identities and stuff? I think I get it.It’s weird, having… Two selves. The one you show the world, and the one that you kept hidden for a really long time. Until you arent sure which one _is_ you. Until they both are.” She says, quietly. 

 

From the awed look of dawning understanding in Kara’s eyes, few people have really talked to her about that, before. What it means, or what it feels like, and Maggie is suddenly fiercely, oddly protective of this girl. 

 

Even if Kara could benchpress a freight train. 

 

Then the door opens, and Maggie looks up, and sees Alex, standing in the doorway, a box of sticky buns in her hands, a soft smile on her face.

 

“You told her?” Alex says, to Kara, and Kara nods, slowly, and it hits Maggie, all over again.

 

That this is real. Alex really is a part of her life, and everything that entails. It’s an amazing feeling, every single time that it hits home, in a new way.

 

Family has never been a big thing for her, exactly. She loves her parents, but the closeness of siblings, or of feeling connected easily, to other people in her life, has sometimes been a tough sell.Then the Alex Danvers dropped into her life like a quiet bombshell, followed by Kara, and she thinks she might be stuck with them, for the foreseeable future. She could get used to that.

 

So Maggie sits on the couch, in the warm morning sunlight, Alex looking at the two of them with different kinds of love in her eyes.

 

And it feels like a really, really good beginning.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> (I'm @DubiousCA on twitter, dubiousculturalartifact on tumblr, and I absolutely love comments, if you feel like it. :)


End file.
